Palm Oil

The biggest threat for Orangutans is their loss of habitat. Due to deforestation, orangutans face losing their homes and families everyday. It has been reported that an area equivalent to 300 football fields is destroyed every hour due to palm oil production. This is the land where animals develop and get their food from. Further reports also suggest that more than half of the orangutan population have been found outside of the protected areas due to palm oil production. A shocking 80% of orangutan habitat has been destroyed by non sustainable palm oil production in the last 20 years.

In Sumatra , Indonesia animals are at high risk because of non sustainable palm oil production and animal poaching. Although this is the only place on earth where all these species reside together, their habitat is being destroyed .

WHAT PRODUCTS CONTAIN PALM OIL?

Today palm oil accounts for 35% of world edible vegetable oil production (Helena Varkkey, 2016 ) with 85% of this sourced from Indonesia and Malaysia.

Palm oil is used in about 50% of packaged goods consumers purchase in supermarkets and shops, but it doesn’t always appear as its name suggests. Labels can mislead consumers with different names that are currently used for palm oil (a sample list is available below).

Different types of foods can include palm oil in them, like biscuits, chocolate, ice-cream, bread, processed foods, crackers, baked goods etc. It can also be found in other products such as household products like cleaning products, toothpaste and shampoo, make-up, cosmetics and detergents.

The global palm oil production is expected to nearly double by 2020. We can do something about deforestation and animals such as the Orangutans affected by non sustainable palm oil production by becoming more conscious consumers.

Alternative names for palm oil

There are over 200 different names for Palm Oil. Part of the labelling choice issue is that consumers who want labelling choice cannot easily know whether palm oil is in the product.